1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to delivery systems used to store and dispense gloves. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a system for dispensing gloves in environments such as health care setting or the food processing industry where the cleanliness of the outer surface of the glove must be maintained until the glove is dispensed.
2. The Prior State of the Art
Gloves have become essential in the practice of modern health care procedures. Medical personnel such as surgeons, nurses, and dentists working in settings such as emergency rooms, hospitals, dental offices, and in the case of paramedics, in public places as well as other similar environments, are all routinely required to wear gloves as they work, particularly if there is any risk of contact with a patient's body fluids. The gloves which are typically used are fabricated from latex or a plastic such as polyethelene or vinyl and are disposed of after a single use.
Generally, latex gloves used in the health care field are elastic and assume a "skin tight" fit when donned. In contrast, gloves fabricated from materials such as polyethelene, which are often used in the food processing field, remain "loose" after being donned. Both types of gloves are also used by industry in applications such as clean room environments, food processing plants, and in other environments where protection of workers and/or products from contamination is necessary.
In light of growing concernig over the spreading epidemic of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), it is more important than ever for health care professionals to stop the spread of disease from an infected patient to the attending professional. This is in addition to the long recognized need to prevent transfer of infectious organisms from the hands of the attendant to the patient. Thus, health care professionals have adopted the practice of donning, removing, and donning new gloves much more often than previously thought necessary in order to protect themselves from infection as well as to protect their patients from cross-contamination.
For example, dentists often employ several assistants who will each be simultaneously preparing a patient for the dentist's attention. Disadvantageously, as the dentist circulates among the patients the dentist must change gloves each time a different patient is examined. Moreover, each of the assistants must change their gloves as they begin to examine each patient. Thus, it is common to find a supply of gloves located at each work area in the office.
Significantly, the outer surface of gloves worn by a dentist or by workers in a clean room environment must be clean but not necessarily sterile. In contrast, gloves used in an operating room must be sterile and extensive precautions are taken to ensure that the outer surface of the glove remains sterile.
Precautions taken to ensure the sterility of gloves includes individually packaging each pair of gloves in a sterile sealed container to be opened only just as the gloves are donned in the operating room. While dentists and other users of "clean gloves" could utilize individually packaged sterile gloves, the cost of doing so is prohibitive except in those circumstances where sterility must be guaranteed.
Since sterility of the gloves is not required in many applications, it has been common in the past to package, for example, one hundred "latex examination gloves" in ordinary paper boxes which are sold to dentists and other health care providers. Generally, the box is opened by removing its top. The box is then left open in the work area. Gloves dispensed from such "open boxes" are generally haphazardly arranged in the box. The open box full of gloves usually sits on a countertop within easy reach of the user. When a glove is needed the user merely reaches into the box and pulls out one or more gloves.
The open box method of dispensing gloves inherently has several disadvantages. Foremost, the gloves are constantly exposed to contamination from the surrounding environment. In the dentist's office, the gloves may be showered with water from hand washing procedures. More importantly, routine dental procedures such as cleaning teeth or filling a cavity may cause debris, including the patient's saliva and blood, to be scattered around the work area into the open container of gloves.
Even when contamination by patients' body fluids is not a concern, the open box full of gloves is exposed to airborne dust and microorganisms which settle onto the gloves. Moreover, the gloves dispensed by way of an open box become soiled as users reach into the box and make contact with a number of gloves before retrieving the one glove which will be donned.
In view of the foregoing, it would be an advance in the art to provide a glove dispensing system which would allow a person to easily retrieve a single glove from a container full of gloves while keeping the remaining gloves clean. It would also be an advance in the art to provide a glove dispensing system which would shield gloves from contamination by the surrounding environment when a glove is not being retrieved.
It would be a further advance in the art to provide a glove dispensing system which is relative inexpensive to manufacture, easy to use, and which may be disposed of after use. It would be a still further advance in the art to provide a glove dispensing system in which gloves may be transported to the user and stored until ready for use.